The next G2G will be on this Friday 26 July, 6-8PM! It will be held at 27 Iron Street, North Parramatta.
This will be a Parent Participation month, where we will be having Dave and Emma Taylor visiting to share their insights based on a wealth of experience around the area of discipleship and training in parenting through the teen years. You don’t want to miss out on this! So please lock the date into your calendars.
We look forward to seeing you there!
In Christ, we want to continue to grow in our love for one another, and in doing so, we’re a testament to the power and glory of Christ: John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
To love more richly, knowing and understanding one another better is helpful, and a great way to do this is by informal conversations around food and smashing some golf balls into a driving range!
For our next social, we’re going to go to Swing City Golf & Entertainment in Bella Vista:
2-6 Norbrik Dr Bella Vista NSW
2153 1300 320 604
info@swingcitygolf.com.au
7:30pm, Saturday 3 August
We’ll kick it off with some food from the bistro at 7:30pm.
Then, we’ll go to some group bays and hit some golf balls – don’t worry, you don’t need to be a golfing pro (I’m certainly not!), just have some fun! There’s ‘a range of game options powered by inrange+ technology’, too.
Cost $13.30pp
I need to prebook so RSVP to me (Joel) by this Friday by 5:00 pm, transferring the money to the church account with description “Men’s Social”.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
As mentioned on Sunday, the Serics will be leaving for the US in less than a month to attend the Sovereign Grace Pastors’ College.
As a way to bless and honour them, we will be holding a special morning tea on their final Sunday after the service. We would love it if you could bring something to share as we celebrate and farewell the Seric family.
When: Sunday 4 August (after the service)
What: Pot-luck Morning Tea (Please bring label for your dish and specify if it is gluten/dairy free. We also ask that anything you bring be nut-free.)
Thankyou!
On Saturday we had our first ‘Marriage Morning’. It was a really helpful time for us as married couples to reflect on our marriages and in particular, our communication. Already I am hearing stories of just how important this morning was. If you missed it, or you are preparing for marriage one day, I wanted to make the materials available to you.
They are two talks given by Pastor Rob Flood from our Sovereign Grace sister church in Philly. The first talk is biblical principles for how we are to communicate and the second is a very practical and pastoral look at how to put this into practice. Most of the content is widely applicable in other spheres of life too.
Also, there are some very searching discussion questions here to help you and talk outlines.
If this brings up anything that is too hard for you to work through alone, sit down with another couple in your Life Group or one you trust and start talking about it. Additionally, if you like Pastoral Counseling please do reach out to me.
May God bless our marriages!
The late and esteemed theologian, J.I. Packer, says this in the Foreword to the book I most want you to read on the Spiritual Disciplines, ‘Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life’ by Donald Whitney
“I was asked to write a foreword for this book before I saw it. Having now gone through it, I would in any case have volunteered for the job, so that I can go on record as urging all Christians to read what Don Whitney has written; indeed, to read it three times over, with a month’s interval (certainly not less, and ideally, I think, not more) between each reading. This will not only make the book sink in, but will also give you a realistic picture of your seriousness, or lack of it, as Jesus’ disciple. Your first reading will show you several particular things that you should start doing. In your second and third readings (for each of which you should choose a date on the day you complete the previous reading) you shall find yourself reviewing what you have done and how you have fared in doing it. That will be very good for you, even if the discovery comes as a bit of a shock at first.”
Buy it here: https://koorong.com/product/spiritual-disciplines-for-the-christian-life-donald-s_9781615216178
Here is a list of all the Spiritual Disciplines he recommends in his book:
The Spiritual Discipline of Bible intake…for the purpose of Godliness
which includes: hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, meditating, and applying the word.
The Spiritual Discipline of Prayer…for the purpose of Godliness
The Spiritual Discipline of Worship…for the purpose of Godliness
The Spiritual Discipline of Evangelism…for the purpose of Godliness
The Spiritual Discipline of Serving…for the purpose of Godliness
The Spiritual Discipline of Stewardship…for the purpose of Godliness
The Spiritual Discipline of Fasting…for the purpose of Godliness
The Spiritual Discipline of Silence and Solitude…for the purpose of Godliness
The Spiritual Discipline of Journalling…for the purpose of Godliness
The Spiritual Discipline of Study and Learning…for the purpose of Godliness
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Don Carson has written helpful of the danger of not keeping the gospel central as we pursue the Spiritual Disciplines, I ran out of space to include it in my sermon, so please read it here.
“The gospel is not a minor theme that deals with the point of entry into the Christian way, to be followed by a lot of material that actually brings about the life transformation…Preaching the gospel, it is argued, is announcing how to be saved from God’s condemnation; believing the gospel guarantees you won’t go to hell. But for actual transformation to take place, you need to take a lot of discipleship courses, spiritual enrichment courses, “Go deep” spiritual disciplines courses, and the like. You need to learn journaling, or asceticism, or the simple lifestyle, or Scripture memorization; you need to join a small group, an accountability group, or . . . Bible study.
Not for a moment would I speak against the potential for good of all of these steps; rather, I am speaking against the tendency to treat these as postgospel disciplines, disciplines divorced from what God has done in Christ Jesus in the gospel of the crucified and resurrected Lord. . . .
Failure to see this point has huge and deleterious consequences. . . . First, if the gospel becomes that by which we slip into the kingdom, but all the business of transformation turns on postgospel disciplines and strategies, then we shall constantly be directing the attention of people away from the gospel, away from the cross and resurrection. Soon the gospel will be something that we quietly assume is necessary for salvation, but not what we are excited about, not what we are preaching, not the power of God. What is really important are the spiritual disciplines.
Of course, when we point this out to someone for whom techniques and disciplines are of paramount importance, there is likely to be instant indignation. Of course I believe in the cross and resurrection of Jesus, they say. And doubtless they do. Yet the question remains: What are they excited about? Where do they rest their confidence? On what does their hope of transformation depend? When I read, say, Julian of Norwich, I find an example of just how far an alleged spirituality may be pursued, in medieval form, directly attempting to connect with God apart from self-conscious dependence on the substitutionary death and resurrection of Jesus—the very matters the apostle labels “of first importance.” Wherever contemporary pursuit of spirituality becomes similarly distanced from the gospel, it is taking a dangerous turn”
D. A. Carson, "What Is the Gospel?-Revisited," in For the Fame of God's Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 164-165
P.S. Another quote I left out on Sunday….Trevin Wax at the Gospel Coalition has written a similar warning:
“In the spiritual formation wave, it’s far too easy for the gospel to be assumed instead of explicit, for Scripture to take a backseat to experience, and for the church to become a sideshow to one’s individual journey.”
The next G2G will be on Friday 26 July, 6-8PM! It will be held at 27 Iron Street, North Parramatta.
This will be a Parent Participation month, where we will be having Dave and Emma Taylor visiting to share their insights based on a wealth of experience around the area of discipleship and training in parenting through the teen years. You don’t want to miss out on this! So please lock the date into your calendars.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Please save the date for the upcoming Men’s Social:
When: Sat Evening, 3 August
More details to come!
As mentioned on Sunday, the Serics will be leaving for the US in less than a month to attend the Sovereign Grace Pastors’ College.
As a way to bless and honour them, we will be holding a special morning tea on their final Sunday after the service. We would love it if you could bring something to share as we celebrate and farewell the Seric family.
When: Sunday 4 August (after the service)
What: Pot-luck Morning Tea (please bring label for your dish and specify if it is gluten/dairy free)
Thankyou!
There will be no groups during the school break (this week and next), but this may be a great opportunity to spend that time catching up with your group members, or even those outside of your group!
We hope and pray that you are enjoying a restful break!